In the wake of armed conflicts and escalating violence

10 million children in Central Sahel need humanitarian assistance

Children live in a camp in Burkina Faso. Reuters

10 million children in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, doubling their number in 2020, amid armed conflicts and violence that have escalated in recent years, a United Nations agency said yesterday.

Burkina Faso, which witnessed two military coups in 2022, has since 2015 been caught in a spiral of violence that emerged in Mali and Niger a few years ago and spread beyond their borders.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a report that about four million children are at risk in the neighboring countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

"Children are increasingly caught up in armed conflicts as victims of escalating military clashes or of non-state armed groups," said Marie-Pierre Poirier, regional director for West and Central Africa.

"The year 2022 was particularly violent for children in the central Sahel region. "All parties to the conflict must urgently stop attacks on children, their schools, health centres and homes."

Armed groups opposed to the state-run education system burn and loot schools, and threaten, kidnap or kill teachers.

She explained that more than 8300,<> schools closed their doors in the three countries (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger), either because they were targeted, or because parents were displaced or afraid to send their children to school.

In Burkina Faso, data collected by the United Nations showed that the number of children killed in the first nine months of 2022 tripled compared to the same period in 2021, with most of these children dying from gunshot wounds during attacks on their villages, or were victims of explosive devices or munitions.

The crisis is taking place in one of the regions most affected by climate change in the world, with rising temperatures and flooding caused by erratic rainfall.

At the same time, some armed groups resort to tactics of besieging towns and villages and sabotaging water supply networks. All of these elements fuel food insecurity. According to UNICEF, by June more than 20,<> people living in the border area between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger will reach a catastrophic level of food insecurity.

Hostilities are spreading from the central Sahel to the northern regions of Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo, remote communities where children have very limited access to protection and services, and there is a lack of funding for humanitarian aid as in 2022 UNICEF received a third of the $391 million it was seeking as part of an appeal for the Central Sahel. This year, it appealed for $473.9 million for the Central Sahel Humanitarian Response Plan and neighbouring coastal countries.